Dolphin Song: Searching for Love
by Piscesone
Summary: First of all, this is not a happy story. Anyone who says otherwise, is wrong. Very wrong. This is a story of misery where there is no other emotion, hope where there is none, and love that does not exist. It is a story of my rotten luck, and my rotten beg


Dolphin Song: Searching for Love  
  
I do not, will not, and can not own Neopets. The characters are strictly mine. I made them ALL up. Any similarity to other Neopets, living or no, names or personality, is strictly coincidental.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
First of all, this is not a happy story. Anyone who says otherwise, is wrong. Very wrong. This is a story of misery where there is no other emotion, hope where there is none, and love that does not exist. It is a story of my rotten luck, and my rotten beginnings. It is only by chance that I came to be in this place where I may finally be happy, and it will only be by chance if I am able to remain here. Many tears were shed over the course of my story, many of them mine. Are you ready? Then let my tale be told.  
  
I was born a Kougra, and I remain a Kougra today. My mother was a lovely being, a Faerie Kougra with sleek and elegant wings. Her fur was purple, and her stripes were a dark yet calming blue. We were wild, born without a master, born free as the wind. There were six others in my litter, myself: Kaelin, four brothers, Aratohf, Nicolten, Shereyin, and Itilan, and two sisters, Thistlela and Yerebren. We were all healthy and happy kittens, and though we knew what our brothers and sisters looked like, we never knew our own image.  
  
We loved each other dearly, and were a wonderful family. None of us ever asked the question of our father. Our mother was all we needed, and all we knew. She taught us some useful things about hunting and hiding, and fed us luscious meals every day. It was life in Paradise, and we knew it. Unfortunately, all of that changed so quickly. Too quickly.  
  
It happened on a warm summer day. Mother was out hunting. She promised us a rich Koi dinner that night, and being cats, seafood was a personal favorite of ours. We heard a knock at the stone door to our den, in the side of a mountain, and immediately assumed that it was our mother with a fish so big that she couldn't open the door. Aratohf went to open the door, and he went down with a small cry.  
  
We rushed to see what was wrong, and saw, to our astonishment, seven large Techos, all with heavy nets and cages. After a shocked silence (we had never seen Techos before), one of them scooped up Aratohf and put him in a cage, unconscious. The rest of us, unsure of what to do, started to wail uncontrollably. We scattered like bowling pins, and looked for any available hiding spot.  
  
About this time, Mother arrived home with a silvery fish in her jaws. Upon seeing the intruders in our home, she instantly forgot the fish and hurried to save her terrified children. With a horrendous roar, she pounced on one of the Techos, seizing his throat in her powerful jaws. The others quickly surrounded her. I remember one shouting that they should take care of her first, for the children were surely too young to fly.  
  
All at once, the fiends produced daggers from their packs, and advanced on her all at once. Crying for her children, she fought for us as long as she could. However, my mother was a normally peaceful creature, and the poachers were too much for her. She went down like a sack of flour after holding her ground for an amazing ten minutes.  
  
Too horrified to move, we were easily rounded up and put in a cage with my still unmoving brother. The last I remember of that cave was my once beautiful mother, lying still on the ground, her faded fur caked with her silvery Faerie blood.  
  
********************  
  
We stared around the city in wonder and amazement. We had never been outside of our home before, and had never known that there was so much to the world. We were distraught over our Mother, of course, but were to shocked to mourn. The Techos carried us up to a large building, and inside was another Techo, a particularly evil-looking one. And so I was introduced to my first stay at the Neopian Pound, or Adoption Agency, as some put it. Adoption Agency is too kind a name for that horrid place, as I could tell just by looking around. What I didn't know was that I would be spending a lot of time here for a Kougra.  
  
We were dropped into a miniscule cage, with barely enough room for us to move around. It wasn't long, however, until someone came into the room we were in and approached the cage. He pointed at Yerebren, our oldest sibling, and to our horror, a hand reached into the cage and reached for her. She yelped pitifully as the hand grabbed her, and she cried until she was handed to the man and taken from the room.  
  
We all yelled and called for her for a long while, until a Skeith in the cage next to us got fed up, and growled, "It's too late. There's nothing you can do for her. She's gone, gone forever. You'll all be gone eventually, being the cute little things you are. Lucky you," he laughed sadly. "No one wants a Skeith anymore. . ."  
  
********************  
  
The Skeith was right. Though he, eventually, was adopted, it wasn't long before I was the only one left in my cage. After several weeks alone, I was moved into a large and spacious cage that was occupied with several other pets, all different species.  
  
A very scraggly blue Kyrii leaning against the bars shrugged nonchalantly as I was shoved into the cave. Her dark eyes caught my eye immediately, and I wasn't sure that she would be very safe to be around. She then spoke in a dark and spooky voice that I would always remember.  
  
"The Darkened One from darkened past  
  
Has come to join our ranks at last.  
  
Do you still believe my gift is just a foolish trick  
  
After I predicted something such as this?  
  
Be warned, little one, the worst is still to come,  
  
Things so terrible, all your senses will numb.  
  
It is possible; you may find the way,  
  
But how, even I cannot say. . ."  
  
I was beyond confused, but a little yellow Pteri, full grown, but still only slightly bigger than I, materialized out of the shadows of the back of the cage and fluttered to my side. She gazed at me, her bright blue eyes boring into mine. "Don't mind Torse," she chirped, very high-pitched and very fast. I later found this quite annoying. "She always speaks in riddles. I guess you're one of us then." She ruffled her feathers a bit, and I saw that many of them were missing from her back and wings.  
  
"One of you?" I was young, and greatly puzzled.  
  
"Thrown into shadow, thrown into despair,  
  
People can only look at what they see there.  
  
They do not look inside, to view the heart,  
  
And so, from the main, we must depart."  
  
"You're an outcast, kid," a mutant Lupe growled. "No one wants you, so you're here." He leapt to his feet and trotted over to me, brushing the Pteri aside. He was greatly scarred in the face, and his left ear was missing. "I'm Moongazer. I'm obviously here because of my mutant appearance, and apparently, that seems to be the case with you as well, child."  
  
Moongazer towered over me, and I shuddered like a Chia might. He was indeed a mutant, the likes of him I had never seen. But what did he mean by "That seems to be the case with you as well"? I was a Faerie Kougra, and always would be. Was there a reason why no one jumped at the chance to own me like they had my siblings?  
  
What did it mean? 


End file.
